How to Get Your Arts Fix

Arts Centres

Founded in 2000, the non-profit Asia Art Archive collects, creates and shares art from around the region. On Saturday 7 March, in honour of International Women’s Day, the AAA is hosting its fifth Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. This edition, Art+Feminism: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2020, is presented in collaboration with M+, and aims to ‘discuss, create, share, and improve Wikipedia articles about women artists and makers in and from Asia’. Head down to the AAA to get involved, or you can even join in from home.

The AAA is also hosting the year-long New Moon Publishing programme, comprised of 12 ‘chapters’ from 12 contributors who imagine the AAA in the year 6083. The project runs throughout the year, with a new chapter released each month.

Local stalwart Para Site, one of the oldest independent art institutions in Asia and a fixture in the city’s arts community, is extending its Koloa: Women, Art, and Technology exhibition until 26 April. Named for a collection of Tongan practices centred on bark cloth making and weaving, the Hong Kong iteration includes three local women artists in exploring koloa and the creation of Pacific textiles as not only art and technology but wealth and self-empowerment for the women at its centre.

You can take your pick of spaces at the West Kowloon Cultural District. M+ museum’s major event is the Sigg Prize exhibition, in which the six artists shortlisted for the prestigious biennial prize show works across sculpture, site-specific installation, video and performance. At Freespace, Lau Bak Livehouse hosts musical performances every weekend, which you can either attend or live stream from home.

At PMQ, you can find Flowers in Bloom, an exhibition of local ink and watercolour artist Choy Yat Chun Anthony’s delicate floral paintings. There’s a selection of works from Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, rotating exhibition Metamorph and a few others.

There are several events and exhibitions still scheduled at nearby Tai Kwun, but it’s best to check back regularly as the venue is understandably being extra-cautious.

Independent Galleries

Hong Kong is home to an impressive roster of independent galleries, and they’re still open. Here’s just a sample of what’s going on.

The Hong Kong Art Gallery Association is collaborating with the Asia Society Hong Kong Center for a month-long outdoor sculpture and installation exhibition starting 26 March, to be held at the Asia Society’s sleek Admiralty space and including a full day of talks and an art picnic on 28 March. Art Gallery Day and the South Island Art Day in Wong Chuk Hang are going ahead just a bit later, at the start of April.

Galerie du Monde is showing a group of six artists who were slated to exhibit at Art Basel, in a show titled 3E14. The show celebrates artistic exchange between East and West, and covers the period from the 1960s until today.

F11 Foto Museum is paying tribute to the city with an exhibition of Dutch master Ed van der Elsken’s photographs of old Hong Kong. This will be the first time the photographer’s Hong Kong series, created over three weeks during a 13-month world tour, will be shown in its entirety.

You might not know that safe-space club Mihn (宀) also has a gallery, which the collective launched in 2018 to promote emerging artists. March sees the space host Lousy Lounge, an exhibition by iconic local street artist Lousy. The exhibition integrates large-scale canvas paintings from Lousy’s studio with works in his street-art ‘bombing’ style. For budding collectors, Lousy will also launch accessibly priced limited-edition prints.

Brand-new non-profit space Crafts on Peel was launched this year to preserve local crafts. Its inaugural exhibition Crafts Interwoven: Past and Present sees contemporary artisans paired with traditional craftspeople to create pieces from bamboo, copper, porcelain and more.

Create Your Own

Experiencing art is great, but why not take it to the next level? The AAA isn’t the only organisation offering this kind of interaction: try your hand at life drawing, get some friends together for art jamming, create some East-meets-West pieces, learn photography or take some dance classes and indulge your inner Baryshnikov. Be the art you want to see!

All information was correct at the time of publishing, but please check with the respective organisations in case of any changes.